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Background: Adolescence represents a transitional period which is marked by physical, social and psychological changes. Changes in body shape and physical activity especially alter and shape the psychological well-being of adolescents. Aim: The purpose of this study was to determine the role of physical activity level, body mass index and maturity status in body-related perception and self-esteem of 11-18 years old adolescents. Subjects and methods: A total of 1012 adolescents participated in this study. The 'Social Physique Anxiety Scale', 'Body Image Satisfaction Scale', 'Physical Self-Perception Profile for Children' and 'Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inventory' were administered. Physical activity level and body mass index were assessed using the 'Physical Activity Questionnaire' and 'Bioelectrical Impedance Analyzer', respectively. Results: Regression analysis indicated that body mass index was the only predictor of perceived body attractiveness, social physique anxiety, body image satisfaction and self-esteem for female adolescents. For male adolescents, both physical activity and body mass index were correlated with perceived body attractiveness and social physique anxiety. Pubertal status were not correlated with self-esteem and body-related perceptions for both males and females adolescents. Conclusion: In summary, body mass index and physical activity plays an important role in body-related perceptions and self-esteem of adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More and more festivals are organized every year around the world, in big cities and villages alike, due to the numerous benefits they are perceived to bring at local and national levels. While the economic and tourism impact of mega events and of hallmark events is better documented there are very few studies dealing with the economic impact of small events. Consequently, to close this gap, our study investigated the importance of small events and festivals for local economic development and as tourism attractions in Istanbul, Turkey. We used a questionnaire to interview non-local participants at three different small festivals taking place in April and May 2013. We found that, although tourists attending these festivals spend money in the local economy, the economic impact of these events is limited due to the fact that very few tourists were found to participate. The role of these small festivals as primary motivators for tourism is therefore being questioned; however, small festivals could play more important roles as secondary attractions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundSugar feeding is an important behavior which may determine vector potential of female mosquitoes. Sugar meals can reduce blood feeding frequency, enhance survival, and decrease fecundity, as well as provide energetic reserves to fuel energy intensive behaviors such as mating and host seeking. Sugar feeding behavior can be harnessed for vector control (e.g. attractive toxic sugar baits). Few studies have addressed sugar feeding of Aedes albopictus, a vector of arboviruses of public health importance, including dengue and Zika viruses. To address this knowledge gap, we assessed sugar feeding patterns of Ae. albopictus for the first time in its invasive northeastern USA range.Methodology/principal findingsUsing the cold anthrone fructose assay with robust sample sizes, we demonstrated that a large percentage of both male (49.6%) and female (41.8%) Ae. albopictus fed on plant or homopteran derived sugar sources within 24 hrs prior to capture. Our results suggest that sugar feeding behavior increases when environmental conditions are dry (high saturation deficit) and may vary by behavioral status (host seeking vs. resting). Furthermore, mosquitoes collected on properties with flowers (>3 blooms) had higher fructose concentrations compared to those collected from properties with few to no flowers (0-3).Conclusions/significanceOur results provide the first evidence of Ae. albopictus sugar feeding behavior in the Northeastern US and reveal relatively high rates of sugar feeding. These results suggest the potential success for regional deployment of toxic sugar baits. In addition, we demonstrate the impact of several environmental and mosquito parameters (saturation deficit, presence of flowers, host seeking status, and sex) on sugar feeding. Placing sugar feeding behavior in the context of these environmental and mosquito parameters provides further insight into spatiotemporal dynamics of feeding behavior for Ae. albopictus, and in turn, provides information for evidence-based control decisions.

ABSTRACT Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2) is the cause of the respiratory infection known as COVID-19. From an immunopathological standpoint, coronaviruses such as SARS-CoV-2 induce increased levels of a variety of T-helper 1 (Th1) and inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, including interleukin-1 (IL-1), IL-6, CCL2 protein, and CXCL10 protein. In the absence of proven antiviral agents or an effective vaccine, substances with immunomodulatory activity may be able to inhibit inflammatory and Th1 cytokines and/or yield an anti-inflammatory and/or Th2 immune response to counteract COVID-19 symptoms and severity. This report briefly describes the following four unconventional but commercially accessible immunomodulatory agents that can be employed in clinical trials to evaluate their effectiveness at alleviating disease symptoms and severity: low-dose oral interferon alpha, microdose DNA, low-dose thimerosal, and phytocannabinoids.

Meningiomas are relatively common, and typically benign intracranial tumors, which in many cases can be cured by surgical resection. However, less prevalent, high grade meningiomas, grow quickly, and recur frequently despite treatment, leading to poor patient outcomes. Across tumor grades, subjective guidelines for histological analysis can preclude accurate diagnosis, and an insufficient understanding of recurrence risk can cloud the choice of optimal treatment. Improved diagnostic and prognostic markers capable of discerning between the 15 heterogeneous WHO recognized meningioma subtypes are necessary to improve disease management and identify new targeted drug treatments. In this review, we show the advances in molecular profiling and immunophenotyping of meningiomas, which may lead to the development of new personalized therapeutic strategies.

We describe a case of a 57-year-old man referred to an oral maxillofacial surgeon for a nontender, large intramuscular tongue mass. A computed tomography scan with contrast showed a homogenous right tongue intramuscular fatty mass measuring 3.8 cm × 2.8 cm in the axial dimension and 2.2 cm in the craniocaudal dimension. Histologic examination revealed multiple lobulated sections of mature adipocytes and occasional entrapped skeletal muscle fibers. The final pathologic diagnosis was intramuscular lipoma. Although lipomas account for approximately 50% of all soft tissue neoplasms, intramuscular (infiltrating) lipoma of the tongue is exceedingly rare. Keywords: Oral lipoma, Tongue, Intramuscular lipoma, Infiltrating lipoma

Developing low cost and energy-saving methods for manufacturing ceramics is always desirable and is now one of the hottest and most challenging research topics in the ceramics industry. In addition to saving energy, reduction of CO2 emissions is also a priority. Addressing these needs makes development of new processing and manufacturing techniques a necessity and also stimulates a search for new raw material alternatives. Geopolymers are non-crystalline aluminosilicate polymers that are formed by mixing alkali-silicate solutions with reactive aluminosilicate materials under normal temperature (RT - 120 °C) conditions. Since geopolymers were introduced, there has been considerable research in new application areas. Traditional ceramic tiles are produced at temperatures of 1,100-1,200 °C. Applying geopolymer technology to ceramic tile manufacturing saves substantial energy cost and reduces CO2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the energy-based design approach, the seismic design is performed through the balancing of the energy input and the energy dissipation of the structure. The energy dissipation is represented by the hysteretic energy dissipation capacity defined as the total area enclosed in the force-deformation curves under cyclic loading. Thus, the energy-based design approach considers the cumulative effect of the seismic loading of the structure. The cumulative damage in the structural members can be expressed in terms of cumulative plastic rotation (CPR). The CPR capacity plays an important role in determining the hysteretic energy dissipation capacity of a steel moment connection. This study investigated the energy response and the CPR capacity and demand through dynamic pushover analyses on steel moment-resisting frames. The results were compared with the ones obtained from the pushover analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract We argue that conformal invariance in flat spacetime implies Weyl invariance in a general curved background metric for all unitary theories in spacetime dimensions d ≤ 10. We also study possible curvature corrections to the Weyl transformations of operators, and show that these are absent for operators of sufficiently low dimensionality and spin. We find possible ‘anomalous’ Weyl transformations proportional to the Weyl (Cotton) tensor for d > 3 (d = 3). The arguments are based on algebraic consistency conditions similar to the Wess-Zumino consistency conditions that classify possible local anomalies. The arguments can be straightforwardly extended to larger operator dimensions and higher d with additional algebraic complexity.

Basophils are granulocytes involved in parasite immunity and allergic diseases, known for their potent secretion of type 2 cytokines. Identifying their functions has proven to be controversial due to their relative rarity and their complex lineage phenotype. Here, we show that the expression of basophils lineage markers CD200R3 and FcεRIα is highly variable in inflammatory settings and hinders basophils identification by flow cytometry across multiple disease states or tissues. Fluorophore-conjugated antibody staining of these lineage markers strongly activates basophil type 2 cytokine expression, and represents a potential bias for coculture or in vivo transfer experiments. The Basoph8 is a mouse model where basophils specifically express a strong fluorescent reporter and the Cre recombinase. Basophils can be identified and FACS sorted unambiguously by their expression of the enhanced yellow fluorescent protein (eYFP) in these mice. We show that the expression of the eYFP is robust in vivo during inflammation, and in vitro on living basophils for at least 72 h, including during the induction of anaphylactoid degranulation. We bred and characterized the Basoph8xiDTR mice, in which basophils specifically express eYFP and the simian diphtheria toxin receptor (DTR). This model enables basophils conditional depletion relatively specifically ex vivo and in vivo during allergic inflammation and their detection as eYFP+ cells. In conclusion, we report underappreciated benefits of the commercially available Basoph8 mice to study basophils function.

Review of Cloonan, M.L. (2018). _The monumental challenge of preservation: The past in a volatile world.

As part of on-going efforts to control hookworm infection, the "human hookworm vaccine initiative" has recognised blood feeding as a feasible therapeutic target for inducing immunity against hookworm infection. To this end, molecular approaches have been used to identify candidate targets, such as Necator americanus (Na) haemoglobinase aspartic protease-1 (APR-1), with immunogenicity profiled in canine and hamster models. We sought to accelerate the immune analysis of these identified therapeutic targets by developing an appropriate mouse model. Here we demonstrate that Nippostrongylus brasiliensis (Nb), a phylogenetically distant strongylid nematode of rodents, begins blood feeding early in its development and that immunisation with Na-APR-1 can block its growth and completion of its life cycle. Furthermore, we identify a new haem detoxification pathway in Nb required for blood feeding that can be blocked by drugs of the quinolone family, reducing both infection burden and the associated anaemia in rodents. Collectively, our findings show that haem metabolism has potential as a checkpoint for interrupting hookworm development in early stages of the hookworm life cycle and that the Nippostrongylus brasiliensis rodent model is relevant for identifying novel therapeutic targets against human hookworm.

Category: Ankle, Ankle Arthritis Introduction/Purpose: The use of smartphone applications to assist with medical care is increasing. An important aspect of total ankle arthroplasty is to allow patients to remain active and mobile following their surgery while decreasing discomfort. To our knowledge, no other studies have quantitatively and qualitatively assessed post-operative mobility following total ankle arthroplasty. The goals of the present study were to assess the reliability of a mobile health application to measure step counts, to correlate mobility with pain and functional assessments, and to determine average walking ability following total ankle arthroplasty. Methods: A smartphone app, Moves, used a pedometer to record the number of steps taken daily. The device was chosen because it is a free application and is compatible with both iPhone and Android. Patients were identified through the OR schedule and called one month prior to surgery. After obtaining consent, patients completed an online consent form, an online pre- operative survey and downloaded the Moves application to their smartphone. Mobility data was gathered for the month prior to surgery and from post-operative months 3-9. Beginning at 3 months post-operatively, patients completed a weekly online survey until 6 months post-operatively, which was then completed biweekly until study completion at 9 months post-operatively. The correlation of step count with pain and quality of life scores as reported through the Foot and Ankle Outcome Score (FAOS) and pain as reported by the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) were assessed via Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients. Results: 46 patients (23 female and 23 males) were enrolled with a mean age of 63.6 years (range 33.0 to 78.9). Maximum daily step count increased from a median (1st quartile, 3 rd quartile) 4348 (2737, 7253) steps pre-operatively to 4411 (3237, 9614) steps post-operatively, with patients continuing to increase their step count at 9 months post-operatively. Step count showed weak correlation with FAOS pain scores (rs=0.21 [95% CI: 0.08, 0.33]), FAOS QOL scores (rs=0.11 [95% CI: -0.02, 0.24]), and NRS pain scores (rs=-0.27 [95% CI: -0.38, -0.14]). Conclusion: Using mobile technology following total ankle arthroplasty may be useful for patients to quantitatively assess their recovery; however, this application fails to correlate increased ambulation with qualitative assessments such as pain and quality of life. While improved pain and quality of life scores only showed weak correlations with increased ambulation, it is important to note that pain improved despite increasing ambulation in the post-operative period. In addition, it may be that differences in functional outcomes do not appear until beyond 9 months as step count has not yet plateaued at that point.

Pendulum-based systems which are highly non-linear and unstable have become one of the most widely studied subject of control theory. The close interest of researchers on inverted pendulum problem arises from its strong representation ability with real engineering applications. This study focuses on the design and production of an experimental setup in which a spatial inverted pendulum can be balanced by means of a planar mechanism in RRRRP configuration. A mechanism with two different motion inputs (rotational and linear) that no studies were performed on before was prototyped. This system is highly unstable and shows non-linear dynamic behavior. The mechanical parts that forms the system were manufactured by a 3D printer and a CNC milling machine. At the end of study, a four-degree of freedom spatial inverted pendulum experimental setup has been established on which the control works can be carried out, by installing the electronic and electro-mechanical equipment.

Category: Other Introduction/Purpose: Previous data shows complications related to peripheral nerve blocks (PNBs), the standard of care in anesthesia for foot and ankle surgery, occur infrequently. Elucidating the extent of these complications after lower extremity procedures will help improve the safety and quality of care delivered. The purposes of this study were to report the incidence and type of PNB-related complications, and to understand how the type of PNB, specifically popliteal and ankle blocks, may affect these complications. This is the largest prospective study to date and the first to review complications in a blinded fashion by both an unassociated surgeon and anesthesiologist. We hypothesized complications would be rare and mostly resolvable. Methods: Patients undergoing foot and ankle surgery with a PNB were prospectively enrolled for two years and followed postoperatively for three months or until the resolution of complications. Surgery time, tourniquet time, and demographics (age, BMI, sex, comorbidities, and number of surgeries) were collected. A survey was filled out by surgeons at all postoperative visits, and detailed the nature and anatomic location of perioperative complications. Complications were reviewed independently and blindly both by a surgeon and anesthesiologist unassociated with the case and rated as 1) likely from the nerve block, 2) possibly due to the block, or 3) definitely not from the block. Serious complications were defined as those needing an intervention or having a motor deficit, numbness/pain not resolved after 6 weeks, or pain or neuropraxia outside the surgical site. Results: 2,516 patients undergoing 2,704 foot and ankle procedures from October 8, 2012 to October 7, 2014 were identified. Of these, 287 patients (11.4%) had a total of 290 (10.7%) complications after surgery. The majority of surgeries were performed with popliteal block (see table). Complications possibly due to the block were significantly higher in those with a popliteal compared to an ankle block (p < 0.001), but no difference in the complications likely due to the block was found (p=0.522). In complications at least possibly due to the block, dexamethasone additive was a significant predictor (p < 0.001). None of the demographic factors were associated with complications. Interrater agreement between the surgeon and anesthesiologist was found to be 0.42 (weighted kappa statistic), representing agreement on 64.6% of causes of the complications. Twenty serious complications occurred in the 112 possibly block-related complications, 16 of which were unresolved. Conclusion: These findings suggest that the use of PNB in foot and ankle surgery is associated with a low post-operative complication rate and few serious, unresolved complications, most being neurological in nature. The majority of were not attributable to PNBs, but more of the complications possibly due to the block were attributable to popliteal blocks than ankle blocks. The small number of complications made it difficult to draw conclusions about confounders. The relative lack of agreement between the surgeon and anesthesiologist suggests that the cause of complications is commonly not obvious which creates difficulty in studying and managing these patients.

In 2016–2017, we conducted and published a systematic review on caffeine safety that set out to determine whether conclusions that were presented in the heavily cited Health Canada assessment, remain supported by more recent data. To that end, we reviewed data from 380 studies published between June 2001 and June 2015, which were identified from an initial batch of over 5000 articles through a stringent search and evaluation process. In the current paper, we use plain language to summarize our process and findings, with the intent of sharing additional context for broader reach to the general public. We addressed whether caffeine doses previously determined not to be associated with adverse effects by Health Canada (400 mg/day for healthy adults, 300 mg/day for pregnant women, 2.5 mg/kg body weight/day for adolescents and children, and 10 g/day for acute effects) remain appropriate for five outcome areas (acute toxicity, cardiovascular toxicity, bone & calcium effects, behavior, and development and reproduction) in healthy adults, pregnant women, adolescents, and children. We used a weight-of-evidence approach to draw conclusions for each of the five outcomes, as well as more specific endpoints within those outcomes, which considered study quality, consistency, level of adversity, and magnitude of response. In general, updated evidence confirms the levels of intake that were put forth by Health Canada in 2003 as not being associated with any adverse health effects, and our results support a shift in caffeine research from healthy to sensitive populations.

Frederick H. Evans (1853–1943) spent the turn of the twentieth century photographing English and French cathedrals, always using the church to figure a particularly late Victorian alarm at the lost vitality these medieval structures symbolized. This article illuminates his art’s deep religious stakes by exploring the mystical resonances of his stated preference for the lantern slide as a support for his images, a matter that has been long overlooked despite his extensive articles on the topic. Evans’s cathedral photographs are most fully comprehended when his promotion of glass over paper is acknowledged and interpreted through his affiliation to Swedenborgianism.

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic imaging (FTIRI) was used to study bone healing with spatial analysis of various callus tissues in wild type mice. Femoral fractures were produced in 28 male C57BL mice by osteotomy. Animals were sacrificed at 1, 2, 4, and 8 weeks to obtain callus tissue at well-defined healing stages. Following microcomputerized tomography, bone samples were cut in consecutive sections for FTIRI and histology, allowing for spatial correlation of both imaging methods in different callus areas (early calcified cartilage, woven bone, areas of intramembranous and endochondral bone formation). Based on FTIRI, mineral/matrix ratio increased significantly during the first 4 weeks of fracture healing in all callus areas and correlated with bone mineral density measured by micro-CT. Carbonate/phosphate ratio was elevated in newly formed calcified tissue and at week 2 attained values comparable to cortical bone. Collagen maturity and mineral crystallinity increased during weeks 1–8 in most tissues while acid phosphate substitution decreased. Temporal and callus area dependent changes were detected throughout the healing period. These data assert the usefulness of FTIRI for evaluation of fracture healing in the mouse and its potential to evaluate pathologic fracture healing and the effects of therapeutic interventions.